The global colocation giant Equinix has closed the acquisition of ancotel GmbH, a former German competitor, Equinix announced Tuesday.

While Equinix does gain an additional Frankfurt data center from the deal, the real value is in ancotel’s network and that network’s customers. Equinix is getting more than 400 customers, including 200 networks (bringing Equinix’s total European network customers to 900) and 6,000 new cross-connects.

The acquisition also gives Equinix new edge network nodes and points of presence in London, Hong Kong and Miami.

Eric Schwartz, president of Equinix EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), said, “As a leading interconnection hub for networks throughout Europe, ancotel brings highly complementary capabilities to our European business that increases our network density in the region and offers a strong interconnection infrastructure that will provide our customers with a platform for growth in Europe and beyond.”

The data center Equinix gains from the deal becomes its fifth in Frankfurt, bringing the company’s total colocation-floor capacity in the market to more than 220,000 sq ft. The ancotel data center adds about 23,000 sq ft to this inventory.

ancotel’s 2011 revenue was about US$21.4m, growing by 20% per year on average for the past three years, according to Equinix.

Equinix has data centers in 38 markets around the world, serving more than 4,000 customers, including enterprises, financial-services companies and network, cloud and digital-content providers.